But he found that a traveller's life is one that includes
much pain amidst its enjoyments. His feelings are for ever on the
stretch; and when he begins to sink into repose, he finds himself
obliged to quit that on which he rests in pleasure for something
new, which again engages his attention, and which also he
forsakes for other novelties.

We had scarcely visited the various lakes of Cumberland and
Westmoreland, and conceived an affection for some of the
inhabitants, when the period of our appointment with our Scotch
friend approached, and we left them to travel on. For my own part
I was not sorry. I had now neglected my promise for some
time, and I feared the effects of the dæmon's
disappointment. He might remain in Switzerland, and wreak his
vengeance on my relatives. This idea pursued me, and tormented me
at every moment from which I might otherwise have snatched repose
and peace. I waited for my letters with feverish impatience: if
they were delayed, I was miserable, and overcome by a thousand
fears; and when they arrived, and I saw the superscription of
Elizabeth or my father, I hardly dared to read and ascertain my fate. Sometimes I
thought that the fiend followed me, and might expedite my
remissness by murdering my companion. When these thoughts
possessed me, I would not quit Henry for a moment, but followed
him as his shadow, to protect him from the fancied rage of his
destroyer. I felt as if I had committed some great crime, the
consciousness of which haunted me. I was guiltless, but I had
indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as
that of crime.

I visited Edinburgh with languid eyes and mind; and yet that city might
have interested the most unfortunate being. Clerval did not like it so
well as Oxford: for the antiquity of the latter city was more pleasing to
him. But the beauty and regularity of the new town of Edinburgh, its romantic castle, and its environs,
the most delightful in the world, Arthur's
Seat, St. Bernard's Well, and
the Pentland Hills, compensated him
for the change, and filled him with cheerfulness and admiration. But I was
impatient to arrive at the termination of my journey.